MICHIGAN
Daily Mail (UK)
Catholic tutor facing decade or more in prison for having sex with her 15-year-old student REJECTED plea deal that would have given her just a few months behind bars
A former Michigan high school tutor convicted of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old male student is expected to be sentenced to at least a decade in prison after refusing to accept a plea deal and insisting her case go to trial.
Abigail Simon, 35, was last month found guilty on four of the five charges against her – three counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and one count of accosting a minor for immoral purposes – and will be sentenced in January, with a maximum penalty of life in prison.
However, according to MLive, Simon turned down numerous opportunities to receive a lighter sentence in order to try and fight to clear her name, and could have gotten off with a few months behind bars.
Between April 2013 and the beginning of a probable cause hearing for Simon in Grand Rapids District Court in August, the Kent County Prosecutor’s Office gave Simon the chance to plead guilty to second-degree criminal sexual conduct, which would have ended her expensive, lengthy and at-times humiliating trial. …
Simon was fired from her position as a tutor and study hall supervisor at Catholic Central and West Catholic high schools after the boy’s mother found pictures of Simon in a garter belt on her son’s phone.
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